Home-Buying Strategies: How to Win Out in a Competitive Real Estate Market
Finding your perfect home in a wildly competitive market can feel like a high-level sport. You aren’t just competing with the sellers to negotiate the best possible price; you’re in competition with the scores of other homebuyers who want what you want. And to win, you have to treat it like a sport.
Success boils down to three essential characteristics: agility, speed and flexibility. As a homebuyer in a fast-paced, white-hot market, those will be your superpowers.
How do you apply those characteristics to your next home search? To find your dream home, follow these straightforward strategies.
Set Up Alerts Across Various Channels
File this first tip under “speed.” If something desirable hits the market, you want to be among the first to know. Because if an attractive property sits on the market for longer than 24 hours in a hot market, chances are it's already gone. (That depends on your area’s rules around “bully offers” before the scheduled offer day).
Therefore, it’s wise to set up alerts across various channels. Set up alerts on the big real estate listings sites. Set up social media alerts to ping you when various location and real estate keywords crop up. And work with your realtor to set up alerts for their internal listings dashboard.
Line Up Your Pre-Approval
Often, sellers only look at offers from prospects they deem “serious buyers.” To become a serious buyer, you need pre-approval for a mortgage.
It must be noted that pre-approval differs from pre-qualification. The latter is an informal illustration of your creditworthiness and strength as a lending candidate, but it holds little water in buying offers. Pre-approval is a far more rigorous process in which financial institutions pore over various aspects of your financial situation to stress-test you for a mortgage amount and then lock you into a rate.
Before you start putting in offers, line up your pre-approval to appear as competitive as possible.
Work with a Responsive, Experienced Realtor
A fantastic realtor should be many things: a teacher, a guide, a cheerleader and champion. In competitive markets, they must also add one essential quality to their resume: responsiveness.
You need a realtor who responds within minutes – not hours – of your requests to view a place, lay down an offer, amend the offer in a bidding war, etc. Those critical minutes can spell the difference between winning your dream home and seeing it slip through the cracks. Find the most experienced realtor in your area to partner with, as they will understand how to act fast without acting recklessly – an essential distinction!
When Possible, Remain Flexible with Contingencies and Closing Dates
Lastly, to the best of your ability, try to remain flexible. Flexibility is attractive to home sellers in a competitive market, who often need to control the timeline of their sale because they themselves are entangled in a buying contract.
To that end, consider leaving appreciable wiggle room on the closing and possession dates. Moreover, cautiously consider whether it’s within your risk calculations to waive contingencies on financing and inspection. Removing contingencies (conditions) shouldn’t be undertaken lightly, so have a long, hard talk with your realtor about the topic prior to making offers.
By remaining agile, fast and flexible, you can nab your dream home, even in a competitive market. It might take some time and patience, but it will happen.
